I am having a late-night stint (these do not happen often!) and figured it was about time for another blog post, what with it nearing the end of second term and all that. Keep all you avid readers updated on my life! (Well, by avid readers, I probably actually mean my Mum, maybe Rosie and a few randomers who have stumbled across this blog and have no idea who I even am...)
Life as a vet student can be best summed up as a constant battle with my eyelids. They do not cooperate in lectures- I tell them to stay open, but I am sure they plot and scheme to get heavier and heavier until I cannot help but give in. So then I tell myself I will listen with my eyes closed- the problem is that the battle then shifts to my brain which also decides not to cooperate and slowly, slowly begins to miraculously transform even the most exciting biochemistry lecture into an unintelligible foreign language. I think I am going to buy some play dough to make models instead of notes. It might help me concentrate better.
That does make it all sound rather bleak- it really isn't! I do find a lot of what we learn interesting, it is just the sheer volume that we have to know. I have been a bit complacent since passing January exams, but I know next term will require some serious study time if I am going to make it through the June lot. It seems very strange that this year represents one fifth of my training as a vet. I feel like I have learnt so little, altho I know that is probably not the case. I am in the middle of doing washing and packing ready to spend three weeks on a sheep farm in Somerset helping with the lambing.
I feel a lot more settled here this term than I did last term. It was really lovely to go home last weekend, although coming back to Bristol on Sunday evening made me realise that I have friends here now who I love dearly and it would make choosing between Alton and Bristol nigh impossible. I like this arrangement of some time in each.
Life is still ridiculously busy here, but I am getting better at making time to do the things that I consider important. Just recently I have rediscovered how awesome it is to spend time alone with my Father, listening to Him and talking to Him and reading His word. It seems crazy that we should ever wake up in the morning and not be struck with an overwhelming desire to spend time with this God of the universe who cares for us. But I know I easily get distracted and somehow my priorities get all screwed up and my desires change and something else becomes my focus. But that is totally not the best way! It means that I miss out on so much. I guess I would rather veer on the side of being too 'extreme' than of being lukewarm and average. It is very easy to be distracted.
I have been learning the truth of what the Psalmist says- 'All those whose hope is in You will never be put to shame.' Where is my hope? Recently I have been thinking a lot about joy, partly due to reading 1 Peter, and how I can have this completely inexpressible joy because of the hope and love I have in my Saviour. So often we forget that joy, we lose the joy of our salvation, we forget that it is supposed to be our strength, we settle for our garments of mourning and sadness instead of accepting the new ones of joy and gladness. Why?!
Oh there is so much I could write about and I realise this is quite a poor summation of this term! But that will have to do for now.
